Anthony Davis Jr. enjoyed visiting his sister at her eastern New Orleans apartment. The 16-year-old high school student had done it many times.

NOPD New Orleans police line

He intended to visit her again Friday night, but he didn't make it. Someone fatally shot Davis near the Willowbrook Apartments' security gate before he had a chance to call his sister to buzz him in, said Gilda Davis, the teen's mother.

"I can't tell you the pain my family is in," Gilda Davis said. "I'm so numb."

Police said they received reports of gunfire at 10:07 p.m. in the 7000 block of Bundy Road. Officers found Davis dead from a single bullet wound to the chest, coroner's office chief investigator John Gagliano said Saturday.

In addition, a security guard at the apartment complex suffered a wound to the hand, New Orleans Police Department spokeswoman Hilal Williams said.

Investigators have not released details about a suspect or possible motive behind the attack.

Davis, who had three older sisters, attended John McDonogh Senior High School and often spoke about going on to the University of Miami after graduation, relatives and neighbors said Saturday.

He had an easy time making friends in and out of school, said his father, Anthony Davis Sr. "He was a people person ... wherever he went," the father explained.

That quality served the younger Davis well when he moved with his family to Houston for several months after Hurricane Katrina. He met a group of other young men who shared his fondness for rap music, and they banded together to form both a group called the Charger Boyz and an online record label.

He entertained himself writing, performing and recording songs with them, Gilda Davis said.

During the last few months of his life, the teen and his family coped with the loss of his grandfather, Gilbert Lewis Jr., who died in April.

"But his grandfather was 86," Gilda Davis said. "My baby was ... a child. I can't tell you how terrible it is for someone to shoot my child."